


A Flame, A Light

by barefootwits



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Angst and Romance, Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 06:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barefootwits/pseuds/barefootwits
Summary: Infiltrating a Nif base goes wrong. An explosion goes off too soon. With Gladio at the center.-“Noct! Noct, stop!”





	A Flame, A Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stitchcasual](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/gifts).



> I'm. Really really excited to share this fic. It came out of nowhere and forced me to put my other WIPs aside so that it could pour out of me. 
> 
> This is for [Stitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/pseuds/stitchcasual), not just for encouraging me as I wrote it and helping me meet my goals so that I could get it done, but also because the whole reason I started writing it was seeing they were going through something hard last week and the number one motivator to get me to write is apparently wanting to give my friends some comfort in the form of characters they love. 
> 
> I hope it's enjoyed! Thank you for stopping by to read! 
> 
> I'm always happy to make new friends! I'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/barefootwits) with the same handle and on [tumblr](https://of-courf-not.tumblr.com/)!

* * *

Gladio had chuckled, leaning back from kissing Noctis on the forehead before Noctis could swat at him. But he reached out again to push a hand through Noctis’ hair, just once, and Noctis let him. Then he’d taken off into the deep shadows of the Nif base as though they did this every day, sword summoned and dropped over his shoulder. Noctis hadn’t watched him go, turning to sneak the opposite way.

Gladio’s grin was clear in his mind.

\---------------------- 

“Noct! Noct, stop!” 

He tore through another MT. Noctis could hear Ignis yelling to him, but the words didn’t truly reach him. Even if they did, he wasn’t going to stop. Everything that got in his way was going to be removed, until he could get through. Through the fire. Through the growing number of bodies. 

Through to where Gladio was. Noctis’ heart wasn’t going to slow down until he saw Gladio safe.

A pair of MTs rushed him. One went down before he got to it, chest shattering open, and he vaguely realized that Prompto was beside him. Their eyes met as they both changed stance. Prompto’s were full of unease, but his gun was steadily aimed. Noctis had no way to reassure him, because they could both still hear Ignis calling for him to turn back, which he wasn’t about to do. And Prompto both knew and saw it, in that instant before Noctis swept his sword down into the other MT, breaking it apart and striding forward quicker than it could even hit the pavement. He would do that to all of them. Leave a trail.

They cleared a path along the high metal walkways, patrolled heavily by MTs even as flames grew nearer. Noctis warped ahead, plunging his blade into chests, into backs - anywhere, as long as they fell. Prompto cleared the way below for him from the vantage point as Noctis threw himself down to the ground in a streak of blue. A group of infantry teks advanced from the rising smoke, walking in their steady way toward Noctis while he stood with pieces of soldiers just like them strewn around him. He dashed forward into their line, taking out a pair with one slash. Another swept a blade at him, forcing him to dodge backwards. It tried again, and he parried, bringing it down swiftly like he’d done to the others. There were more, though. As he met the next attack, Prompto reached his side, firing over Noctis’ shoulder. MTs dropped around them. 

Another group attacked them immediately. They took them out quickly, just like the last. It all a blur of motion to Noctis.

The real struggle was starting to become getting past the blaze that was growing inward. The fire danced high, and was growing. Barriers that should have just been fences and walls were now just as dangerous as those who’d built them. But to get to Gladio, they had to get past. Noctis cast a wall of ice at the reddening links of the next gate, which only melted down in seconds. 

Before he could stride forward again, a helmet rolling near his feet, a blast flared out. One of the control buildings ahead of him became consumed in flames, bursting apart from the heat, shattering the windows and making the fire jump into the smoke-filled air. Noctis shielded his face from it with the blade of his sword, scanning around for a different path where he could find a way through. There wasn’t one.

Prompto stepped up to his side and grabbed his shoulder urgently. “Hey, we’ve gotta get out of here. We’re not gonna get to Gladio in all this.” He tried to pull Noctis a safer distance away from the newly destroyed building, glass crunching under their boots, back towards the front of the base.

Noctis swept Propto’s hand off. “You and Specs get out. I’m not going until I find him.” 

“This is foolish, Noct,” Ignis ground out, coming up to meet them on his other side. His glasses were gone, either taken off to protect them, or broken. He looked at Noctis with determination, blended with sorrow. “The remainder of our explosives have already been set. This base is going to go up at any moment. Gladio was at the center of the first blast. Even if we found him-“ 

“I’m going to!” Noctis shouted. Despite it being loud, desperate, it was partly drowned by the cracking of the fire whipping at the air. “There’s no way I’m leaving him!” 

Ignis’ gaze grew more sorrowful, but his jaw clenched in resolve. Noctis saw it just before Ignis grabbed him, arm encircling Noctis’ middle, hefting him smoothly off of his feet. He took off for the exit of the base, and Prompto followed directly at his heels, only hesitating a moment. Ignis clutched tightly onto the back of Noctis’ jacket, making sure he had as secure a hold on him as he could. The entrance of the base grew closer. 

Gladio, lost in the wreckage where the fire had broken out, became further and further from Noctis.

“No! Damn it!” Noctis twisted sharply, doing his best to get out of Ignis’ hold. He managed to break Ignis’ grip, slipping slightly down the other man’s back, the ground rising toward his face. But it didn’t slow Ignis down or make him drop Noct. Noctis grabbed fistfuls of Ignis’ shirt, pushing against his back so he could lift his head and stare back at the blaze behind them. 

He could warp. 

But as he braced himself to do so, drawing in what breath he could through the spreading smoke, everything lit up.

The three of them flew forward from the blast, rolling over the concrete. The base became more engulfed around them. Heat pressed at them from all sides, as though the Pyreburner himself were chasing them.

Heavily, Noctis felt Gladio’s sword fall back into him, into the Armiger. 

Before Noctis could stand up again on his own, gasping, sick, gripping cold spreading through him, Ingis’ hands pulled him to his feet. It was too quick. Too much. Ignis had to hold him up until Noctis could breathe, and even then, he held tightly to Noctis’ shoulders, making sure the prince was steady.

When Ignis let go, hands lingering, he didn’t attempt to pick him up again, and was favoring his right side. Noctis saw it, sharp worry flashing through him. He knew they had to get out and get clear of the base before it completely exploded. His heart, though- His heart wanted him to turn around and run with all of his strength back to where he knew Gladio had been. 

Noctis turned back.

But there he saw Prompto’s wide eyes, standing just in front of him. There was a dark, gross smear of soot and blood from Prompto’s shoulder almost to his elbow. The wound looked bad. The blood was drying in a large clot. Noctis knew that it wouldn’t be doing that so fast if it weren’t for the air hitting their skin, so hot that it shimmered and distorted everything around them. 

The flames were so close to them. There was no way.

Noctis couldn’t move.

Ignis’ hands rested insistently on his shoulders from behind. Prompto stepped forward into him, clutching onto Noctis’ jacket. They pressed into him, one pushing and the other pulling him backwards. 

“Noctis.” It was urging. Pleading. Afraid.

Somehow, heart screaming at him, he turned. 

They cleared the base and just reached the Regalia in time to slam the doors shut as the fire found all the rest of the explosives they had planted. It erupted. The dark sky went bright, burning out the stars. A last group of half-melted MTs trailed out from the blazing walls. Their red eyes didn’t even seem to glow against the inferno behind them. Ignis sped away before they could be reached.

Silence took over. None of them spoke. 

The further they got, the harder Noctis’ heart slammed inside his chest, and the more painful it was with every throb. He hit the side door with his fist, sharply, feeling panic burst out under his lungs. It was desperate, tearing at him. Forcing it back, he clasped one hand with the other as tight as possible, gritting his teeth while watching his fingertips dig in enough they might bruise. The seat beside him was empty, and it shouldn’t be.

It made Noctis jerk when Ignis’s voice broke the quiet after several minutes. Things slowed down to him, hearing the very first word, and realizing Ignis was speaking into his phone. 

“Gladio,” Ignis said, voice soft. But it was the loudest thing, to Noctis, over everything else, and he leaned forward desperately. Ignis paused, glancing at him in the mirror, brow pulling together. It was clear in his voice that it took him effort to continue, “If you’re safe and able, return this call. We are extremely concerned for you.” 

Gladio’s voicemail. Not Gladio himself, shouting for them to come back for him. Not Gladio, languidly telling them that he was fine. Just his voicemail. 

Noctis hurriedly pulled out his own phone anyway and hit Gladio’s contact icon, always the very first one on his list. He thought he’d at least have the reassurance of the call going through, but it didn’t ring even once. Instead, the click of the recording came immediately. Clenching his eyes shut, and his fingers around his phone, Noctis dropped his head. When the car stopped briefly at a creature crossing, he realised he was shaking. Noticing it made the cold inside his chest flare, stabbing through him. With every second it became worse. 

All Noctis could focus on was Gladio not being there. Not laughing at their close call. Not insistently, diligently looking all of them over for any injuries. Not grumbling about the soot on his hands and having nothing to wipe if off with so that he could read his latest book. Not tugging Noctis over to him to lean against his side. 

Gladio.

Not safe. Not whole. Not breathing. 

It felt like his heart was going to break him apart, and everything else around it, and Noctis didn’t know how to stop it.

The first haven they came to, Ignis pulled over. 

From here, the sky was still full of smoke, and it somehow made the full darkness of the night feel blanketed, grim, and disquieting. 

Noctis stayed where he was, head bent down, while the other two sombrely, very slowly got out of the car. His breath hitched sharply when the trunk opened and he heard Prompto murmuring, voice holding some empty note, asking how to set up the tent. 

Before he’d thought to move, he was standing in front of them. “We’re not staying here. We’re going back.” 

“You know we cannot do that,” Ignis told him gently, while Prompto looked between them, finally meeting Noctis’ eyes and staring at him with so much concern it burned straight into the prince, an overwhelming surge of helplessness dragging over him because of it. 

“So we don’t do _anything_?!” 

“The danger is still too great. Even if we did return, we would not be able to get anywhere close.” Somehow, the lack of a request for Noctis to calm down was almost tangible. 

“What about-“ Noctis grit his teeth as his voice rose, “Gladio is-“

Prompto quickly moved to rest a hand on Noctis’ arm. “Hey, we don’t know for sure. He could be-“

Ignis waved a hand shortly to cut Prompto off. A brief, tense moment fell between them before Ignis spoke. “We will not move on without finding out what has happened to Gladio. I want to see him safe also. If he is looking for us, this is the nearest haven. But returning to that base would mean walking to our deaths. Gladio would not want-“

“Don’t use him against me! You think I care if he would kick my ass for going back to save him? As if he wouldn’t run right back for any of us?” 

“ _He_ is not going to be the king.” 

“I can’t be the king without him!” 

Noctis moved back, pulling his arm away from Prompto. He stared down at the road, vision growing hazy, body held so tightly he was quivering. Ash was drifting around slowly on the barely-there brush of wind, carried the couple of miles from the explosion. 

He watched Ignis’ legs shift. There was a pause. Ignis stepped towards him. 

Noctis sharply turned and got back into the car. 

He was grateful the roof was up, so that after the trunk closed, as Ignis and Prompto went further away up the slope, he wasn’t able to hear them.

And they couldn’t hear him break down.

\---------------------- 

He woke up there in the back seat, curled in on himself. His cheek peeled off the leather when he lifted his head. The door by his feet was open, Ignis leaning through. Noctis’ eyes stung. Burned. They still felt wet when he opened them to meet his friend’s steady gaze. 

“Please come up to the haven. The runes will do no good protecting you from down here.” Ingis’ voice was quiet, but it held something coaxing.

Noctis rolled to face the back of the seat, and he felt more than saw Ignis pull back, waiting. A long moment later, Noctis sat up, shoving open the door on his side. The instant he was upright again, he felt his pulse picking back up. Getting out of the car was difficult. He followed Ignis to the camp silently, fists clenched, trying to breathe more than anything else. 

The tent was up. The chairs were set around the cold, unlit fire pit. All four of them.

Noctis could feel Prompto anxiously watching him from where he was sitting, legs pulled up to his chest, but he just stared at Gladio’s chair, before he pushed inside the tent. 

He lay there the entire night pretending to sleep, facing the spot beside him that was normally filled with an amber gaze that would devotedly watch him, arms that would securely wrap around him, and a heartbeat under his cheek that he could drift off to. 

\---------------------- 

Cor and Cindy promised to keep a lookout for Gladio. The hunters were notified and sent out, and they waited all through the next morning, hoping to hear anything. All they got was a call around noon telling them that the base was still burning. Nobody could get close. But they’d been watching, and nobody had come out, either. 

Aranea was more difficult to get ahold of, but when Ignis did manage it, she said she’d see what she could do. She cautioned that it probably wouldn’t be much. 

They couldn’t call Iris. Not until they actually knew something.

Every minute they waited was too long. Ignis suggested taking a walk, but that meant leaving the campsite and Noctis wouldn’t go any further than they already were. It started raining, anyway. He spent most of the day in the tent, unfocused, willing Gladio’s broadsword into his hand, only enough to form the crystalline shape of it, before sending it back into the Armiger, then summoning it again. Pretending that maybe Gladio could feel it, somehow, the way he could. That maybe it finally wouldn’t come to his hand because he’d annoyed Gladio enough that he’d reached in and taken it himself. 

Ignis gave him his space, only ducking inside to gather a few things, and to change a bandage around his thigh that Noctis hadn’t known was there, and pushed up on his forearms to look at. Ignis glanced down, looking at him reassuringly behind slightly foggy glasses as he pulled on his jacket. 

His voice came softly outside the tent, continuing to make calls, but none of them gave him any news to bring back in. Noctis tried not to listen. 

After lunch that was hardly touched, Prompto wandered in and wordlessly settled beside him. He sat facing away from Noctis, but pressed his back into Noct’s side. Whatever he was doing on his phone, he tapped against the screen hard enough that Noct could feel the little jolts. For a while, he laid there concentrating on it. 

It was comforting, just a little. 

He felt guilt rush through him.

He must have taken a sharp breath or something, because Prompto twisted to peer down at him, heavy-lidded eyes worried. Mournful. Noctis couldn’t meet them, closing his own. A beat later, Prompto had himself rearranged partially atop Noctis, sprawled across him on his stomach. Noctis lifted his arms, one over his head while the over dropped over his face, and breathed. Prompto’s weight was comforting, too. 

His voice sounded far away as he forced, “Prom…” 

“You want me to leave you alone?”

The weight began to ease up. Noctis tensed and Prompto stilled. Waited. 

“I don’t think so. No, I just-“

“No touching, maybe?” 

“Yeah,” Noctis sighed, grateful. The pressure lifted completely. A different guilt fell over him. 

\---------------------

Once the crummy weather carried past and night fell, they heard the airship. It was unmistakable. Noctis rose with a sword already materialising in his grasp and went to meet the MTs that dropped down into the road near where they left the Regalia. 

Too near. 

The battle was hard. Noctis was too tired and when a tek approached his back too quickly for him to free his blade from another’s throat, he shouted for Gladio to cover him. It was Ignis who hurtled over, while Noctis ignored the clench of his heart by launching himself at the next MT he saw. 

It was hard, but it didn’t last long. 

Rising from a crouch over the last body, bright warp form fading around him, Noctis was met with Ignis’ troubled gaze. 

“They know where we are now. More will come.” 

They both knew it didn’t need to be said. Noctis strode ahead of him. “We’ll keep taking them out.” 

“Noct.” 

Ignis’ tone demanded his attention. He almost never used it like this anymore, but it still made Noctis halt, despite the urge to keep walking, to not face this, that prickled warmly in his chest. He still kept his back to Ignis. The next time Ignis spoke, there was no more trace of it. His voice was tender. “I have never been able to ground you as Gladio can. And right now I would not try to. You are afraid for him.

“But we must not ignore being in danger ourselves. One more night here. Then we should move on to the closest town, at least.” 

Noctis was still. He didn’t know how Ignis and Prompto couldn’t feel his heart doing everything it could to break out of him. 

Then, he repeated, lowly, moving forward again,

“One more night.” 

Prompto and Ignis fell in beside him. They walked back to the haven slowly, so that Ignis didn’t put more strain on his injured leg than necessary. Noctis watched both of them take a potion once they got to the campsite, too aware of the spiking ache in his chest at the sight.

After almost no sleep the night before, the fight, and a day of fighting back every image his mind tried to form of what might have happened to Gladio, Noctis felt the drain from it all through his whole body. Every limb was heavy and sore. Things seemed slow, except for inside of him. Inside, he couldn’t quieten what was raging. The more time that passed, the harsher it all tore at him. 

When he flopped down in the tent, he only worried for a moment that he might not sleep again. It took him seconds to pass out. 

But it felt like he jerked awake again seconds later.

The dark was so complete, he could barely see Ignis and Prompto, both soundly asleep to his left when he rolled onto his side, pushing himself to sit up after their shapes became slightly more visible. His gaze flashed firmly away from them. 

He’d agreed to waiting one more night. Just not how Ignis meant. 

He knew that he shouldn’t. 

Knowing it wasn’t going to stop him.

He had to go back.

As quietly as he could, he freed himself from the blanket Ignis must have tucked over him, reaching for his boots. Pulling the zipper of the tent up slowly so that it didn’t make a sound, and ducking to step outside, he froze. 

There was a light. A small one. So, so small, but there. 

Noctis ran from the tent. It rustled loudly, fabric snapping back from where he’d pushed through, and he didn’t care. 

The light was so far off in the distance, he couldn’t actually tell whether it was approaching or keeping still. But he knew. 

Noctis didn’t even think. He abandoned his boots on the stones, racing to the edge of the haven, sliding down the steep side until he hit grass. He tore forward. His feet carried him ahead, but not fast enough. He forced himself through brush, around trees. Down another steep slope, almost losing his balance. There was still an entire field to cross.

The moment the silhouette became clear ahead of him, still too far away from him, Noctis warped. 

Gladio’s arms caught him.

They almost toppled. Would have, if Gladio hadn’t been braced for it. 

“You’re lucky I’m used to that,” Gladio murmured, lips brushing Noctis’ cheek, before he pressed his face into the curve of Noctis’ shoulder, tightening his hold. Noctis grabbed at him, pushed into him as much as he possibly could. They stood in the pitch dark, holding each other. 

The only thing that made Noctis draw away was hearing Gladio take a sharp breath as his hands slid down his shield’s shoulders to wrap around his waist. He tried to push them apart so he could see how Gladio was hurt, but Gladio wouldn’t let him, seizing Noct’s arm and tugging him back in. “Don’t even think about me letting you go,” Gladio told him, voice rough.

Noctis’ brow furrowed, and he drew Gladio down fast to kiss him. 

Kissing him made Noctis’ pulse finally, steadily settle into a normal beat. 

Gladio spoke against Noctis’ mouth, a little desperately, pushing a hand gently, but firmly into his hair, “Didn’t know if you’d made it.” 

Eyes closed, Noctis focused on the sound of Gladio’s voice, and breathed out, “How did you?”

Before he answered, Gladio’s mouth closed into a kiss on Noct’s lips again, lightly, lingering. “The wall fell in and trapped me. Barely avoided getting crushed. I smashed my phone when I fell,” he added, irritated, starting to scowl. Noctis reached up, fingers brushing over Gladio’s cheek, and it softened. “It took forever to push through the rubble, and the whole place was smouldering. I had some fighting to do, too.”

“Fighting? But-”

“You know I don’t need a sword to kick some ass.” 

Noctis didn’t say anything, just sighed with a slight huff and gazed up at Gladio, who gazed right back, loving, and started to smile at him. 

“You were gonna do something stupid, weren’t you?”

“Come find you,” Noct met his lips again, made a small sound when Gladio’s teeth pulled at his bottom lip, “so, yeah, I guess so.”

“Iggy tell you not to?”

“You already know.”

“And you know he was right.”

Deepening the kiss shut Gladio up. Noctis opened his mouth, enjoying the way Gladio groaned softly as their tongues met. He licked at Gladio’s upper lip, until Gladio turned his head, pressing their lips together firmly while he slid his tongue under Noct’s. 

Gladio somehow pressed Noctis closer in his arms. The dread that had been battering inside of Noctis gave way to a solid, encompassing comfort. 

Both of their mouths were slightly numb when the kiss slowed, tongues growing lazier, changing gradually to soft, unhurried brushes of lips, unable to fully pull away until Gladio turned his face, rubbing his cheek against Noctis’, smooshing them together. He left a barely-there kiss just by Noctis’ ear before pulling back. They watched each other, drawing in the air between them. 

Faintly, Prompto’s sleep-heavy, worried voice called Noctis’ name, and it took them several moments still to break their gazes away from each other. Prompto and Ignis were far off, coming down into the field. They were only visible by the lights on their jackets. 

Noctis shouted, “I’m here! With Gladio!”

Prompto’s surprised, joyful whoop floated back in reply. 

Noctis reached back, sliding his hand down Gladio’s arm. He was here. Breathing. Whole. Safe. 

“C’mon,” he sighed. “I’ve gotta go apologise to Ignis.” 

Gladio grunted a laugh, taking Noctis’ hand. 

“You’ll get through it,” he teased. “I’ll be beside you.”

Noctis’ hand, and his heart, squeezed. 

“Yeah. As long as you’re there, I can.”


End file.
